Tundra Wolf Queen
Chapter 3 of Azra's Tale
Being part of the First Book of Faerie and shedding some some small light on the courtship rites of nobility
It will now be told, a little of the story of the Tundra Wolf Queen. Mostly because there is never a moment where she talks to anyone about her life and thus there is no chance to tell the story to you. Its difficult to understand her blind fury and the more dominating aspects of her personality with understanding her history.
A long time ago her people, wolf-kin fae who travelled and bred with the tundra wolves and hunted game, florished across an otherwise uninhabitable land. She ran with them as a pup and had a name that human toungues would have no use trying to pronounce. But things started to change when a race of people, ansestor to humans, found resources of use in her land. Soon the people were setting up towns and castles and fighting over the precious little food stuffs that one could find in the tundra. Meanwhile using whatever resources(oil, gold, iron or some other alien earth product turned weapon) to fuel a war machine somewhere else in the world.
Nonetheless many animals, not only the very game that the tundra wolves lived off of but also the wolves themselves, were killed as the people advanced across the land. It is probable that the Tundra Wolf Queen's entire family was killed off. Or maybe her way of life being destroyed was enough to set her off. But either way, she spent her every breath crying to whatever gods or spirits or even little faeries who would listen. Delving deep into her own heart and into the very heart of winter, the Tundra Wolf Queen learned the secrets of winter itself, but in doing so froze over her own heart.
But she found the power she needed to seek the vengence she needed. Calling apon the powers of everything that is cruel about winter, she raged through the people's encampments, slaughtering people herself or through the harsh winter storms that insued. She stormed castles, toppling towers with blizzard winds. Many of her remaining tribe died in battles fighting along side her, but in the end the people were driven back. It had become too dangerous to gain their precious resources and no one who was sane would risk their life in the realm of the Tundra Wolf Queen.
Her land has been a dangerous ground ever since, what used to be a merely desolate tundra was a now a wasteland of cold and wind. What animals and plants that remain have very hard lives, and some even live off of the magic that still flows and keeps the land alive.
So Hopefully this explains a little about why she is so...emotionally unresponsive... She holds on to her kingdom with a cold paw, because she sees herself as its only protector and as the avatar of the endless winter it has become. She is still fearful of invasion by the petty warlords who would remember whatever war-power lies under the snow.
Speaking of which, while our heroine is trapped on a rock at sea, the Tundra Wolf queen was on a diplomatic mission to speak with one of these petty warlords that bordered her land. His name was Bogart, and he was the bastard breeding of a high elven princess, and a tree-like denizen of an enchanted forest. Physically twisted and scorn by fellow elves, Bogart had built and united an army of goblins and other nasty forest boogies. Bogart, so filled with hatred for his half-kin who abandoned him, frequently raids elven encampments, using special arrows made from the bark of a rare red tree, to burn down tree cities and castles alike.
Now the Tundra Wolf Queen had memories of fire used in battle, and was afraid of its sting. So she felt it nessacary to develop a, if not only superficial, friendship with the Bogart. Apon meeting the Tundra Wolf Queen, Bogart was almost instantly enchanted by her beauty(it had been a while since he had seen a non-goblinoid girl) and quickly knew what he wanted out of a friendship. So he proposed to marry her.
The Tundra Wolf Queen had no interest in marrying this knee high boogish Bogart character. But she was a quick thinker,
"Oh but I would make a horrible wife," she said, "however I could find you a wife who would not be as defiant and cruel-minded as I, and one that is not barren as I am, so that she may produce you a child"
And so proposed that she find him a more suitable bride. Of course she didn't know any young maidens. (Maybe because she would more probably eat a young maiden then greet one) This was when she remembered Azra and so being the only thing resembling a young maiden under her power, she began talking up Azra as a beautiful young bird-girl. The idea intrigued the Bogart but he insisted apon seeing her first. So it was agreed that they would talk about it more once the Tundra Wolf Queen had delivered a bridal canidate for inspection. She also remembered Azra saying that her feathers would fall off once she was married.
And of course, as a sly move on her part, the Queen insisted that she get to keep Azra's feathers after the marrige ceremony.(One of Azra's stories that the Queen was started to believe, but only because there at least a possiblity that the feathers could be magical.)
The remaining rock golem and Azra were still leagues away, unaware of this dealing, were making the best of their miserable new lifestyle. The rock was cold, the wind was cold, and the water splashing up at them or down from the sky was cold. Azra mostly ate the flotsamish bugs and jetsamish algaes that washed up on the edge of her island(much less like a proper island and more like a jutting rock just barely big enough for the two to stand on it. The rock golem did whatever a rock golem could to keep the elements away from Azra.
One day Azra saw some selkie who were playing by the shore line close to her. She called out to them,
"Hey what are you, can any of you help us, we were trapped her by the Tundra Wolf Queen."
Azra guessed right by assuming that the selkie of this area had no love for the Tundra Wolf Queen. The selkie took off their seal skins, gently hiding them under rocks by the shore, and climbed up to talk at a more civil tone with Azra. The selkie were very friendly and shared with Azra food and stories, but they didn't have anyway to break the spell that bound the rock golem to prevent the bird-girl from leaving the rock.
They did however know of a powerful sorceror-prince, who controled the sea of endless storm, and controlled the magic of the realm. It was possible that he might know how to break the spell, but he never gave favors without a boon in return. Azra thought hard, she had nothing to offer a great sorceror-prince of the sea of endless storms.
"Do you think he would help me if I promised to marry him?" She asked
The selkie responded, chuckling under their breath "Yes! I'm sure he would be pleased by such a thing. We will get him and bring him back and you shall be married and be free of this rock-prison." With that they leaped into the sea. The selkie were obviously up to something mischevious, but Azra did not know what, and could do nothing but wait.
But as every night past, Azra remembered something her mother and her sisters used to talk about, that if a young bird promised herself to marriage and did not get married before the next no moon, that she would forget all her secrets and become a normal flying bird who would never remember who she was, or how to speech. She didn't know if it was true but she was still worried and became more and more worried as each night the moon got smaller, and the wind got colder.
Until one morning she woke up and the ocean had frozen over, something that she thought was impossible. Full of despair, she cried to the rock golem, "If the selkie can't get through this ice, then I won't be married tonight, and then I'll turn into a dumb bird."
The rock golem had already heard her stories of young birds who turned into normal flying birds because they promised themselves to marriage lightly. The rock golem also knew that the ice was easy enough to break with a simple rock punch, but that then the selkie might come and take away the bird-girl Azra and then the rock would be a very lonely place. So the rock golem did not respond, he just stayed silent hoping that the bird-girl would stop being sad.
Soon a team of six-legged wolves pulling a sled came across the frozen sea. And when the wolves and sled got to the cliff side, they ran up the cliff as if it was the ground. When they got to the top they circled around the rock golem and Azra. From the sled stepped a red cap, or at least he looked like a red cap, but but had not red cap, only a white balding head, and had no irises, only eyes of eerie pale grey. Without a pause in his motion, he snatched the bird-girl Azra and commanded his team of six legged wolves, who were bound by silver harnesses, to return from whence they came.
See also
— AeGeylwynd? - 18 May 2003
